“Rafael is your boyfriend?” I said, frowning. I knew Rafael and my sister had history but didn’t think it was something that significant. I wanted to ask if they had dated before but decided to reserve that for another time.“That’s what I said,” Hannah said. “Okay,” I said. “I’m going to the bedroom. Welcome to the family, I guess.”I still felt there was something off about Rafael but I figured Hannah knew better since she had history with him, whatever it was. What did I know? Hannah seemed very comfortable with him. Either there was nothing for me to worry about or love had blinded her. My sister was known for choosing the worst men available. It was like her trademark, always making merry with the biggest jerks she could find. All the men left her broken. She gave too much of herself when all they were interested in was having a good time. The last one had drained her so much we thought she was never going to think about love again. It seemed that although love wanted to evade
Emilia’s POV The next day we found a group of vampires at our doorstep. I was standing by the counter in the kitchen area, trying to put together ingredients that Hannah and I needed to prepare breakfast for everyone. Hannah had written them down early in the morning and given them to me before she went to clean the bathroom. I was un-shelling an onion, trying hard not to look at it when Emmett walked out of his room wearing a vest and shorts. He had a water bottle on one hand and a phone on another. A tiny blue tooth speaker was attached to one of his large ears.“I’m going for a run,” he informed me. “Zach is still sleeping. He slept late because he couldn’t stop talking about vampires and werewolves. I could barely get any sleep.”“Alright,” I shrugged. Judging by his tone it was as if he was blaming me for it. Like I was the one who brought a vampire to our dinner table.When Emmett opened the door, he was taken aback when he saw four men standing outside with Rafael.“What do yo
After I ran out, my siblings ended up striking a deal with the vampire elders. The week went on without further incident. Hannah and Emmett would leave early in the morning for the resort while I stayed home with Zach, coaching him.The next Monday was our first day at our new schools. Hannah walked Zach to his school which was about 500 meters from home. Emmett and I took the bus because our school was further. The large five story building was in the middle of nowhere. It was like it had intentionally been built near the woods to cater for the supernatural creatures that roamed in it.As soon as we entered the bus, Emmett spotted some of his acquaintances at the back and went to sit with them leaving me alone. I was lucky to find an empty row on the two seater side. I sat by the window and stared outside as the bus drove by. Many students entered later and some huge guy sat next to me. He reeked of baby powder, but I didn’t mind. Since he didn’t say anything to me, I also kept quie
“Please kill me,” the emancipated woman begged with the last remnants of strength in her. She knew she was not getting out of that basement alive, so it was better for death to come as soon as possible. She lay on the cold hard floor, drained of energy because of constant hunger. It amazed her that she could still talk.There was a man in the room. He was leaning against one end of the wall, staring at the woman willing to give up her life for her family. Elizabeth Colman was indeed one tough nut to crack.“Give me what I want and I will let you go, Elizabeth.” Jonathan Smith said. “I do not want to torture you like this, but you have left me no choice.”Jonathan was the man who had replaced her husband as CEO of Imperative Oil co., a company operating mainly in Latin America but with its headquarters in the United States. Peter Colman had worked for the company most of his adult life, so had known everything about it. Before he died, he had handed some documents to his wife to keep t
“Do we really have to live in the middle of nowhere?” my little brother Zach whined.I glanced at the driver, my sister Hannah, whose eyes were fixed on the road. “Yes, Zach. This is the best place for us to live. It’s dad’s hometown.”“Mom’s hometown is better,” my twin brother Emmett chipped in.My mother had recently killed by Jonathan Smith, the man who replaced my father at work. She had bitten his jugular, making him bleed to death. The police said she killed him first and released that information to the public. That marked the beginning of our suffering.People had kept leaving trashy notes and letters in our mailbox, writing mean words on our walls, shouting them to us whenever we left home. These included biters, zombies, dogs, wolves, and vampires, among others.It was as if they had forgotten that Jonathan had kidnapped my mother for a month. The same people who had sympathized and helped us look for her were now shunning us. But in all honesty, sometimes I thought it was
The town was not so bad, although it was still tiny compared to most. I had expected it to be some old rundown place, but it actually seemed to be okay. In movies, when people go to small towns, they stay in rundown motels. This one was pretty good. If you could forget that some people had probably used the bed for some activities, you could enjoy the stay.Our aunt had invited us to stay at her house, but we did not want to be a burden. We had meals at a nearby restaurant and went to bed. Hannah, who was sharing the room with me, slept soundly while nightmares plagued me all night long. At one point when I was awake, I heard howling. Since it was a woody area, I figured it was wolves. I had heard howling before when on a tour, but this sounded different. Too real, loud. Despite that, I got some quality sleep towards morning.“Leave me alone,” I told Hannah when she woke me up.“I’m going to the resort site to see what needs to get sorted out,” she said.“Are we not going together?” I
That night, I slept better than the previous one. Hannah, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have had a good night as she was grumpy. I noticed she was disturbed.“What’s wrong?” I asked as I slipped a white blouse over my head.“Mr. Morgenstern does not want me to renovate the resort. He thinks it’s not a good idea.”“Why?” I was one of those who did not approve of her idea but seeing her so down made me feel concerned. I would have been the happiest if she, on her own, abandoned the idea. But, being forced to abandon by some other people was not fair.“There are things I have not yet told you about the resort.”“Yeah, I suspected so. Let me guess, they’re not good things.”Hannah shook her head. “That’s right, but I need this. This is the only thing that connects us to our father.”I sighed. “What’s wrong with that resort? Why was it closed all those years ago? Were people killed in it? Those bones, were they human?”“I will tell you,” she said, standing up. “I will narrate everythin
Zach continued to cry for over thirty minutes while I tried to comfort him in vain. At some point he stopped crying and I figured he had probably slept off. I didn’t mind that I was in the same situation. I was more worried for my innocent brother. I started shouting “help” as loudly as possible but no one came to save us. After sometime, I gave up and stayed silent, left with no other option.Being alone made me think of my mother’s death, a subject I had successfully avoided for a long time. I had kept myself busy to avoid thinking of her and now I had all the time in the world. I was starting to feel the emptiness she had left behind. Mama was who I rushed to whenever I felt overwhelmed. Her hugs were the best and never failed to make me feel better. Had she been alive, we wouldn’t be in that shanty town. We would be back home, living life the way it should be, not stuck in some pit in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, I heard whistling. I stood up and listened attentively before